Nobel Laureates want extra $150B in climate bill

34 Nobel Laureates from the United States are calling on President Obama to press Congress to tack on an additional $150 billion in spending on top of the controversial climate change legislation facing lawmakers.

The Laureates are pressing the president to include his proposed Clean Energy Technology Fund as part of a broader effort to address global warming.

The Laureates urged lawmakers to include an extra $150 billion in funding -- $15 billion over the next ten years --to fund research and development and technology implementation they asserted were key to curbing climate change.

"The stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the U.S., as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost," the group wrote Obama.

The House passed the American Clean Energy and Security act in a close vote last month, and the Senate won't take up the legislation until after recess.

The Laureates needled the House bill for not providing "stable, specific funding for sustained research in the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, or for the energy research and associated technology development programs of DOE (at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity Deliverability, Fossil, and Nuclear offices)."